Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
The Lydian Origin of the Cult of Attis: a Study of Kingship and Divinity
View through CrossRef
Abstract
Behind the tale of Atys the son of Croesus, as it is told by Herodotus, it is possible to detect the characteristics of the dying royal lover of the goddess that are attested in poetry, hymns, myth, and rituals from the third millennium
BCE
to the Hellenistic kingdoms of the third and second centuries
BCE
. Royal marriage in Lydia was the consummation of a symbolic union of the king, or king-to-be, with an avatar of the goddess of rulership, who was Kybebe, or
Kuvav(s)
, among the Lydians, identified as Aphrodite by the Greeks. Funerary rites for the Lydian prince were sufficiently impressive and widely disseminated to make Atys the most memorable archetype of the dying lover of the goddess, who came to be known from the fourth century on as Attis, the beloved of Cybele, by which time his royal status had sublimated into the paradigm of the handsome herdsman.
Title: The Lydian Origin of the Cult of Attis: a Study of Kingship and Divinity
Description:
Abstract
Behind the tale of Atys the son of Croesus, as it is told by Herodotus, it is possible to detect the characteristics of the dying royal lover of the goddess that are attested in poetry, hymns, myth, and rituals from the third millennium
BCE
to the Hellenistic kingdoms of the third and second centuries
BCE
.
Royal marriage in Lydia was the consummation of a symbolic union of the king, or king-to-be, with an avatar of the goddess of rulership, who was Kybebe, or
Kuvav(s)
, among the Lydians, identified as Aphrodite by the Greeks.
Funerary rites for the Lydian prince were sufficiently impressive and widely disseminated to make Atys the most memorable archetype of the dying lover of the goddess, who came to be known from the fourth century on as Attis, the beloved of Cybele, by which time his royal status had sublimated into the paradigm of the handsome herdsman.
Related Results
Lefs: a Greek god in Lydian disguise. Ζευσις: a Lydian god in Greek disguise, and some Luwian gods too
Lefs: a Greek god in Lydian disguise. Ζευσις: a Lydian god in Greek disguise, and some Luwian gods too
Gods cross borders easily, taking their names with them, and the Lydians became fond of Greek gods, one of whom was Zeus. The way he was adopted into the Lydian language (and inscr...
Malis: a new Lydian goddess
Malis: a new Lydian goddess
The authors will present a new edition of a Lydian-Greek bilingual inscription from the Temple of Athena at Pergamon (LW 40). This badly weathered inscription can now be fully deci...
The poet Pindar and Lydian Pelops
The poet Pindar and Lydian Pelops
Although by the fifth century B.C. the myth of Pelops was very well-known among Greeks, and especially in the Peloponnese, versions of the myth differed on where he came from, and ...
The Artemis cult in Lydia and the Lydian girls’ choir: a political evaluation
The Artemis cult in Lydia and the Lydian girls’ choir: a political evaluation
Artemis, who was named after the places she was worshipped, reflects substantial differences in terms of features and the characteristics of her cults in Greece and Anatolia. When ...
Chronology of the Lydian dynasties
Chronology of the Lydian dynasties
My paper comments on the three known Lydian dynasties, time of their rule, cultural-historical significance of the first two legendary dynasties and the history of the latеst. The ...
Belenus, Cybele, and Attis: Echoes of their Cults through the Centuries
Belenus, Cybele, and Attis: Echoes of their Cults through the Centuries
There are two interesting cases of the worship of Roman period deities in the north-eastern Italian and Pannonian regions, which in one way or another seem to have survived through...
Chapter 9 attis
Chapter 9 attis
Attis the Phrygian counterpart of Adonis.
His relation to Cybele.
His miraculous birth.
The death of Attis.
...